Brazilian priest commits suicide in prison after new abuse allegations

Authorities said Fr Bonifacio Buzzi hanged himself with bed sheets in his cell a day after being arrested

A Brazilian priest, Fr Bonifacio Buzzi, accused of molesting children in Minas Gerais state, committed suicide on August 7 in his cell, Brazilian authorities have said.

Local authorities said Fr Buzzi hanged himself with bed sheets in his cell a day after being arrested. In 1995, he was found guilty of abusing several youngsters in a mental hospital and sentenced to four years of house arrest.

In 2004, he was found guilty of molesting an 11-year-old boy but fled before authorities could detain him. He was arrested in 2007 and imprisoned until 2015.

Fr Buzzi, 57, was arrested again in early August in the southern state of Santa Catarina and was taken back to Minas Gerais, where he had been charged with molesting another youth.

The Vatican was taking action against the priest, but the process had not been concluded. In the Oscar-winning film Spotlight, the city of Mariana, where Fr Buzzi worked in the local parish, was included as one of the locations where religious abused youths.